Haryana scraps duty on golf clubs

Golf lovers and children have a reason to feel happy as the Haryana government has scrapped entertainment duty from golf clubs offering level-playing field at par with New Delhi and Noida where clubs are already exempted from this duty.

The golf club authorities in Gurgaon, which has four big-time clubs, said the direct beneficiaries of this decision would be golf enthusiasts.

The entertainment duty of 25 per cent has also been reduced to 10 per cent on all fun, theme and amusement parks in the state where a score of such facilities are destined to come up especially in millennium city Gurgaon.

The decisions to this effect were taken in a meeting of the state Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

According to the golf club authorities, Haryana was the only state in the country that had slapped 125 per cent entertainment duty of golf clubs in the early 1990s and it was reduced to 25 per cent by the O.P. Chautala-run government later.

The Hooda Government has withdrawn the duty to bring it to zero percent, giving the sport activity a much-needed boost.

“The decision has come as a boon for the golf clubs as it would attract more golf players. The duty was not making the government richer by more than Rs 5 crore a year but was diverting golf enthusiasts to Delhi and Noida. We will pass the benefit to the club members,” said a senior functionary of a known golf club here.